Ten Little Roosters
|creator = Josh Flanagan |starring = *Burnie Burns *Chris Demarais *Barbara Dunkelman *Adam Ellis *Gavin Free *Ryan Haywood *Lindsay Jones *Michael Jones *Miles Luna *Gus Sorola |country = United States |no.series = 1 |no.episodes = 8 |company = Rooster Teeth Productions |channel = Rooster Teeth |run = November 4, 2014 - December 23, 2014 (5–10 minutes duration average per episode) |producer = *Burnie Burns *Matt Hullum |no.seasons = 1}} ''Ten Little Roosters ''(TV Mini-Series) was an American Rooster Teeth Live action eight-part comedy crime and murder mystery TV Web series created by Rooster Teeth that first aired on November 4, 2014. The first episode premiered on the 4th November 2014, with the following episodes being released on Tuesday until the finale in December. It is the predecessor to Eleven Little Roosters. Each episode is uploaded to Rooster Teeth's YouTube channel a day after its release on the Rooster Teeth website. The show featured an interactive murder mystery component and is inspired by Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. A semi-sequel series, The Eleven Little Roosters, originally announced during RTX 2015, premiered on January 16, 2017. A prologue series, Assassin Superstars 360 premiered on December 20, 2016, and the official series will debuted on January 16, 2017. This time, with the exception of the survivor, characters will be original characters, and not RT employees playing fictional versions of themselves. After the survivor escapes, he is recruited by an international spy agency to root out The Mole in a group of 18 assassins and spies from 11 agencies around the world. The series is an homage/affectionate parody of Agatha Christie's 1939 murder mystery novel And Then There Were None with many elements alluding to the original book - ten guests are accused of previously committed crimes, are killed off one by one, and their only clue is a poem left by the murderer (said poem can be read in full here◊). The first episode can be seen here - the following episodes are released once per week on Tuesdays, with the finale airing on December 23. After the first episode, viewers were asked to submit guesses as to who is the killer and who will be the survivor (confirmed to not be the killer). After each episode airs the viewers are also asked to guess who will die in the next episode, as well as how they will die. Plot Summary The series takes place at the Rooster Teeth studios in Stage 5 during the inogu...inaugg...first (inaugural) festive dinner party banquet held by Burnie Burns for nine of his employees (Lindsay Jones, Gus Sorola, Chris Demarais, Miles Luna, Gavin Free (technically him and a clone, but they're treated as one person), Adam Ellis, Michael Jones, Barbara Dunkelman, and Ryan Haywood). However, the festive evening dinner party banquet goes and spirals downhill when Michael accuses each and everyone (all the other guests) but himself of committing serious crimes in the past, saying that one person is guilty of "cold-blooded murder", that is, killing people close to them, but he says that only one of them is guilty of 'cold-blooded murder'. It turns into an evening of intrigue, mystery murder for the hapless employees of Rooster Teeth. Shortly afterwards one of the guests (Michael) is mysterious and ominously killed, the rest of the guests stumble upon and find a poem taped to the wall entitled and written in the style of the original 'Ten Little Soldiers/Ten Little Indians' poem, and from the first episode it becomes clear that the poem is outlining the murders and telling the fatal sinister fates of several party guests over the course of the night. Everyone is locked in, and they must figure out who the killer is before they all die. After one guest is mysteriously killed, the remaining nine must find a way to survive the night... and root out the killer among them. As the evening goes on it becomes clear that the verses of the poem are outlining the murders of several guests over the course of the night, and the guests have no choice but to try and survive the night locked in with a corrupted backstabbing 'cold-blooded' murderer...It's a race against time, and it's every man for himself. Synopsis Ten people are stuck in the Rooster Teeth office with a murderer. All ten people have done something terrible and must pay for their actions. Who will die? Who will survive? The first episode takes place at the First Rooster Teeth Banquet, a formal event hosted by Rooster Teeth co-founder Burnie Burns in appreciation of nine of his staff members. The night quickly turns sour when Achievement Hunter's Michael Jones accuses everyone in the room of their awkward and gruesome past crimes and threatens to turn them into the authorities. However, Jones soon falls over dead by way of a poisoned drink, and from there on its all Clue-the-movie-style mystery and mayhem as the rest of the staff tries to figure out who's out for blood before they also find themselves without a mortal coil.http://www.tubefilter.com/2014/11/05/rooster-teeth-ten-little-roosters-murder-mystery/ Inspiration The series is a homage/affectionate parody inspired by Agatha Christie's 1939 murder mystery novel And Then There Were None, with many various elements in the series appearing alluding to the original bookal, most identical to the plot of the original novel - both stories involves a party of ten people (ten guests are accused of previously committed crimes, are killed off one by one, and their only clue is a poem left by the murderer) being murdered one by one by a mysterious killer, with their deaths being foreshadowed in the form of a poem. However, Josh Flanagan has mentioned that 'Ten Little Roosters' has few other similarities to Christie's novel - 'Ten Little Roosters' has a much more comedic tone than the novel, and the story is deliberately different so that people who have read 'And Then There Were None' are unable to rely on their knowledge of the novel's twists to solve the mystery in the series. Format Creator Josh Flanagan described the series as a "proof of concept" for different, interactive experiences that can be offered by a web series.http://www.tubefilter.com/2017/01/13/rooster-teeth-the-eleven-little-roosters-trailer/ The series is inspired by Agatha Christie's 1939 novel And Then There Were None. Viewers vote on who they think the murderer is, who they think will die, and how that person will meet their end. Correct guesses were entered for a chance to win Rooster Teeth merchandise, and the fan with the most correct answers upon the completion of the show will win a trip to the Rooster Teeth studios or to a convention of his or her choice. One party guest is murdered each episode. Both the novel and the series involve the party of ten people being murdered one by one by a mysterious killer, their deaths foreshadowed in the form of a poem. However, the show has a much more comedic tone than the novel. Much of the humour is derived from knowledge of Rooster Teeth itself. For example, characters wear wardrobe from their previous productions (Demarais dons his hobbit costume from A Simple Walk Into Mordor while Haywood wears a kilt akin to his Minecraft avatar). In addition, the story is different so that people familiar with the source material are unable to guess the outcome. The victim dies within the last few minutes of the episode, their death often being the last few shots. The episode ends with a portrait of the murder victim hanging on a wall and a plaque below the portrait with the specific verse of the poem foreshadowing that character's death. The Competition On its original release, the show had an interactive element which doubled as a competition - after each episode aired, viewers had the opportunity to guess the victim and the murder weapon for the following week's episode in a poll that was uploaded shortly after that episode's release. After the first episode aired viewers also had the opportunity to guess the identities of the killer and the survivor, although this particular was taken down shortly before the premiere of the second episode, and it became the only opportunity for viewers to guess those particular identities. After the first episode, viewers were asked to submit guesses as to who is the killer and who will be the survivor (confirmed to not be the killer). After each episode airs the viewers are also asked to guess who will die in the next episode, as well as how they will die. Every week, if people guessed both the victim and the murder weapon correctly, they were entered into a prize draw and winners were chosen randomly to receive Rooster Teeth-specific prizes. In addition, the person with the most correct guesses at the end of the series won the chance to visit the Rooster Teeth Studios or a convention of their choice. Rules of the Competition When the first poll was released in the journal of Josh Flanagan, a number of rules were contained in the journal in order to help the viewers make the best choices for future polls: * Any character that has been killed in the series is dead for good - no plot twists, no fake deaths etc. * There is only one survivor at the end of the series, but the survivor is not ''the same person as the killer. * The only characters that are involved in the mystery are the ten party guests introduced in the first episode. * Whilst the plot may thicken over the course of the series, there is only ''one person responsible for all of the murders. * In the first episode it is revealed that Gavin has a clone of himself at the party as well - the rules state that whatever happens to one of the Gavins must ''happen to the other as well i.e. one can't survive until the end if the other has died earlier in the series (to secure this particular rule, the 'Gavins' were counted as one person in the polls). Weapons At the beginning of the competition the viewers had an option of 22 weapons to choose from for the poll (although each week the list would get shorter as a used weapon was taken from the list). However, only seven weapons would be used within the show to kill the victims - one victim had been killed in the first episode (and thus their death could not be guessed in the poll), one of the guests is the survivor, and there was no poll for the killer's murder weapon in the poll. The list of all 22 possible murder weapons can be found below: * 100% Accurate Minecraft Creeper Suit * A Literal Red Herring * Airtight Underground Chamber * Bathroom Scale * Bow and Arrow * Computer Mouse * Crescent Rose Scythe * Gasoline and Fire * Grifball * Joe The Cat * King's Crown * Lava * Pitchfork * The Power of Math * Puma * Slow Motion Explosion * Slow Motion Mousetraps * Snake of Joel * Sting of a Blue-Ringed Octopus * Sting of a Scorpion * Sting The Sword * Treadmill Episode Format Whilst the focus of the story and the characters changes each episode, there are a number of elements that remain the same within the format of the series, particularly within the episodes. As the series is a murder mystery, one of the party guests dies each episode (the only exception to this is the finale where the killer dies as well as one of the party guests). The victim dies normally within the last few minutes of an episode, with their death being within the last few shots. In addition, the episode will end with a portrait of that episode's murder victim hanging on a wall, with a plaque placed below the portrait - written on the plaque is the specific verse of the poem that foreshadowing that character's death. A similar thing happens as the polls are uploaded for the viewers to input their guesses - at the top of the page is an image containing the portraits of all ten party guests. As the weeks continue, the portrait of the latest murder victim gets 'vandalised' in a way that reflects their method of murder. Episodes Episodes of the first series originally aired weekly on Tuesdays from the 4th of November to the 23rd of December. Each episode was uploaded on Rooster Teeth's YouTube channel a day after its release on the Rooster Teeth website: Cast and characters The Ten Little Roosters *Lindsay Jones (8 episodes). One of the party guests - She is accused of killing Kdin Jenzen in the first episode. She dies in episode 7 after being mauled to death by a puma (''One Got What They Wanted, as she is a cat lover). This makes her the eighth victim of the killer. *Miles Luna (8 episodes). One of the party guests. It is not known what crime he has committed in the first episode since his envelope only contains dick doodles. He ends up the final death among the roosters, being glued to a treadmill and forced to run until he dies of exhaustion ("One Died Of A Pun": unable to "go the extra mile"). This makes him the ninth and final victim of the killer. *Barbara Dunkelman (8 episodes, 2014). One of the party guests - acts as the maestro at the party with her cat piano. She is accused of killing Blaine Gibson in the first episode. She is actually the killer, but is killed at the end ("The Killer was killed") by Ryan when he activates the 100% accurate Minecraft Creeper suit she's wearing. *Ryan Haywood (8 episodes). One of the party guests - He is accused of trapping Edgar the Cow in the first episode. He is the one who survives, killing Barbara with the 100% accurate Minecraft Creeper suit. *Adam Ellis (7 episodes). One of the party guests - He is accused of killing Kerry Shawcross in the first episode. He dies in Episode 6 being strangled by a computer mouse cord ("One Ran Out Of Air"). This makes him the seventh victim of the killer. *Burnie Burns (5 episodes). The host of the party, and the boss of the other party guests. He is accused of killing Shannon McCormick (as shown in the RT Short "The Recording Session") in the first episode. Is later revealed to be an undercover cop who hosted the party in order to catch the killer who murdered his partner years ago. Gets killed in episode 4 by one of Joel's scorpions ("Life imitated art", because his Red vs. Blue character was killed off by a Scorpion Tank). This makes him the fifth victim of the killer. *Gus Sorola (5 episodes). One of the party guests - He is accused of killing Baby Gus in the first episode. Dies by pitchfork stab in episode 5 (One Died To Scale, as Baby Gus is shown stabbed by a fork). This makes him the sixth victim of the killer. *Chris Demarais (4 episodes). One of the party guests - a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings, he turns up to the party dressed up as a hobbit complete with his own sword. He is accused of killing Josh Flanagan in the first episode. Gets killed in episode 3 as he tries to protect Burnie and gets shot with arrows by the murderer ("One Was Martyred"). This makes him the fourth victim of the killer. *Gavin Free as Gavin Prime/Gavin Two (3 episodes). One of the party guests - turns up with a clone of himself (a reference to the RT Short Secret Door), despite the rules against other guests. He is accused of killing Meg Turney in the first episode. Both Gavin and his clone die in episode 2 after tripping over one another ('One tripped over themselves') and falling onto mousetraps. This makes him the third victim of the killer. *Michael Jones (2 episodes). One of the party guests - he attempts to blackmail the other party guests in the first episode, and is later revealed to be an actor hired by Burnie in an attempt to catch the killer. He is the first to die among the roosters, dying from poison in episode 1 ("One Choked On His Rage"). This makes him the second victim of the killer, after Mark Keys. Others *Luis Vazquez as Puma (2 episodes): "Like the shoe company?" "No, it's kind of a big cat." Pre-series victims *Aaron Marquis as Detective Mark Keys (2 episodes) Burnie's former partner from before the series began. He was technically the first victim of the killer, and his death is what sets up the events for the rest of the series. *Ashley Jenkins as Gus' Inner Goddess (1 episode) Crew *Written and directed by Josh Flanagan *Produced by Brandon Farmahini and Josh Flanagan; executive producers: Burnie Burns and Matt Hullum *Cinematography by Chad Leathers *Edited by Josh Flanagan, Brad Anner, Adam Bailey, Chris Demarais, Blaine Gibson and Aaron Marquis *Make-up by Anna Fugate and Erin Klarer *Art by Jordan Cwierz (poster and promotional art) and Jon Risinger (death illustrations) *Sound by Clayton De Wet *Visual Effects by Brian Behm *Stunts by Blaine Gibson and Luis Vazquez *Assistant camera by John Sedlack *Grip by Luis Vazquez *Costumes by Kira John; Ruby Rose costume by Anna Hullum *Music by Brian Piper (cat piano), Trocadero (RvB music) and Jeff Williams (RWBY music) *Colorist: Alex Walker *Contest coordinators: Adam Baird, Barbara Dunkelman, Emily McBride and Josh Flanagan *Achievement Hunter coordinator: Steffie Hardy *Special Thanks: Agatha Christie, Tim Curry, Anna Hullum, Shane Newville, Monty Oum and Kyle Taylor Trivia * The main reason why Michael, Gavin and Burnie were killed off very quickly and were the first three to die was because they were busy planning, prepping, rehearsing and filming Rooster Teeth's first movie, Lazer Team. * A first for Rooster Teeth, the audience is encouraged to participate and find out who the murderer is after each episode. * Based on Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None", also known as Ten Little Indians. * The Puma is a recurring joke amongst Rooster Teeth shows, starting in Red vs Blue (where Warthog was said to look more like a puma) and in RWBY (When Mercury and Emerald were trying to figure out what kind of cat the faunus shopkeep was in vol. 2) References Category:Rooster Teeth Shows Category:Episodes Category:Comedy Category:Completed Series Category:Ten Little Roosters